I sent a bunch of people seed from a charapita plant that I grew from seed I collected in Peru. I had presumed that given how the pods I got in 2012 looked true to the pods I had eaten while there, it was a pure landrace plant. Now that I am growing out three of its progeny (from the same stock I sent out to members of this forum), I'm finding wrong characteristics in all three. While they are clearly charapita-esque, they don't look the same as the mother plant or a plant I cloned from the original plant and gave to my nephew. There's variation but these seedlings all have leaves that are too big and pods that are a bit elongate rather than perfectly round.
It looks like either my plant was a hybrid that had retained normal charapita characteristics, or it was pure but it's a strain that out-pollinates like crazy, resulting in a high rate of outcrossed progeny.
All of my other starts from seed I collected in 2012 look okay. Just the charapitas that look funky.
So, sorry if you were one of those who got goofy seeds from me.
It looks like either my plant was a hybrid that had retained normal charapita characteristics, or it was pure but it's a strain that out-pollinates like crazy, resulting in a high rate of outcrossed progeny.
All of my other starts from seed I collected in 2012 look okay. Just the charapitas that look funky.
So, sorry if you were one of those who got goofy seeds from me.